Commercial activities are subject to constant change and in occasions those that engage in them may face financial difficulties, which may originate within a specific industry or from global external factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the supply chain crisis, or other social and political events such as government elections.

Las actividades comerciales son susceptibles a cambios constantes y en ocasiones, aquellas personas que participan en el comercio enfrentan dificultades financieras. Dichas dificultades pueden ser propias del giro comercial del empresario; o pueden ser originadas por factores externos que afecten a un sector comercial o industrial específico de manera negativa, tales como la pandemia originada por el Covid-19, la crisis en la cadena de suministros, así como eventos sociales o políticos.

In Worthy Lending LLC v. New Style Contractors. Inc., the New York Court of Appeals held that a security interest includes a lender’s right to force the borrower’s account debtors to remit payments directly to the lender, regardless of whether an event of default exists. Further, the court clarified that the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) does not provide a distinction between a security interest and an assignment.

Assignments for benefit of creditors (“ABC”) are rarely used in these United States. That’s for two reasons: (i) some states have no ABC statute and do not recognize the common law of ABCs, and (ii) other states have onerous ABC statutes that no one wants to use.

The State of Illinois is an exception: ABCs are regularly and frequently used there, under the common law of trusts, because the ABC process is an efficient and effective tool for liquidating a failed or failing business. There is no ABC statute in Illinois.

Summary of Key Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Amendments

Part 1 – Celsius Bankruptcy

Over the span of two weeks in July 2022, two of the largest retail-facing cryptocurrency platforms, Celsius and Voyager, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Bankruptcy & restructuring

The economies of the United States (U.S.) and Canada are closely intertwined. As operations expand across the border, so too do the complexities associated with carrying on business - particularly the insolvency of a company spanning both jurisdictions. As such, understanding how to navigate the complexities of Canadian insolvency regimes is essential to successfully doing business in the country.

1. Legislation and court system

To the long list of things people love about lawyers we can add last week’s holding by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals that “Blvd.” is utterly unrecognizable as “Boulevard” – at least by Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code as enacted in Florida.

The Express Grain Terminals, LLC (“Express Grain”) bankruptcy is a case study for grain farmers and their crop production lenders. Near the end of corn harvest and during the peak of soybean harvest, many grain farmers in the Mississippi Delta discovered that they faced potential financial ruin as a result of the bankruptcy filing by Express Grain¹ on September 29, 2021 (the “Petition Date”).